Info Pioneer

L et’s say a company is about to launch a new product and, as is the standard practice, they have pre-briefed a select group of media outlets and bloggers about the news under an embargo. The launch date is close and writers have already prepared their news stories so that they can push them as soon as embargo is lifted. And then something strange happens – one media outlet publishes the story ahead of time thus breaking the embargo – intentionally or unintentionally. Find Who Broke the News Embargo? Broken embargoes can be frustrating for journalists and bloggers as the limelight (and page views) often shifts to the news publication who did not honor the embargo. If a news embargo gets broken, here’s a simple way that may help you determine the name of the publication that broke it in the first place. Step 1. Go to google.com/realtime and type a few words from the story headline. Step 2. In the timeline, click an area where you have minimal number of tweets around that story. That’s...

A s of today you can use a rich text signature in Gmail, meaning that you can add links and images to it, as well as change the text’s format, font and color. To change your signature in Gmail , click on “Settings,” and scroll down to the “Signature” section. You’ll see a new signature editor which contains the same functions that are at your disposal when you compose an e-mail. If you have more than one e-mail address associated with your Gmail account, you’ll be able to choose a different signature for each one using the drop-down menu (the menu doesn’t appear if you have only one e-mail address associated with your Gmail account).

B ing vs Google Face-Off Still On: Bing Announces Search Index Boost, Social Results & More Did you notice the competition going on between Bing and Google? The game is still on and after Google announced its new Caffeine search index, it is Bing's turn to tout the future release of its enhanced 'Bing Webmaster Tools' this summer. Bing Webmaster Tools The company calls it its "no-cost toolset" for webmasters and SEOs. The new version - as Rick DeJarnette wrote on the blog - was created from webmasters' feedback and built with (surprise!) Microsoft Silverlight 4 although basic functionalities are supposed to still be available on most browsers. What other browsers might not get are the features such as " Index Explorer , a tree-view that enables webmasters to see at a glance all of the crawling and index data for their website. Each level in the tree view offers webmasters access to specific data management controls, such as URL blocking, cache blocki...

M icrosoft has doubled the capacity of its Zune HD portable media device: 64 GB for $349.99. Microsoft has opened the doors on a new 64 GB version of its Zune HD , doubling available storage capacity at a price tag of $349.99. The 64 GB version of the device is essentially the same as its 16 GB and 32 GB siblings—however, all new Zune HD models recently picked up new features via the Zune HD 4.5 firmware update. Zune HD 4.5 firmware adds a new Smart DJ Mix capability, enabling users to create an automatic playlist directly on the Zune HD device based on a particular song or artist. The Smart DJ mix feature pulls songs from the Zune’s available collection of material—and, for users with a Zune Pass, from Zune Marketplace. The firmware update also offers custom music recommendations and picks based on the music both the Zune owner and other Zune HD users have been listening to on Zune Marketplace. That might turn you on to some pretty cool music, or confirm your low opinion of other Zune...

Letters to go on display for the first time in New York show that JD Salinger wrote regularly for years after he stopped publishing JD Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, in 1951. Letters written by JD Salinger to the designer of The Catcher in the Rye's jacket, which are to go on display at a New York museum, show that the author was still writing regularly long after he stopped publishing in 1965. The 11 letters, written between 1951 and 1993, were sent to his friend of more than 40 years E Michael Mitchell, who at one point Salinger addresses, Holden Caulfield-style, as "Buddyroo". They show that he would start work every morning at six, or seven at the latest, refusing to be interrupted "unless absolutely necessary or convenient", according to a report in the New York Times , which revealed that the letters were to be made public at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. A 1966 letter points to "ten, 12 years' work [which includes] tw...